Fiscal Design and Administration

Revenue Management and Distribution

Sustainable Development

Otto, J., and Cordes, J., The Regulation of Mineral Enterprises: A Global Perspective on Economic, Law and Policy (Westminster, Colorado, United States of America: Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation, 2002)

Otto and Cordes present a well-developed piece of work that comprehensively discusses mineral law and policy issues. They focus their discussion on major topics of mineral policy, mining laws and agreements, international investment law, mineral taxation and environmental and sustainable development issues.

The authors divide the book into eight chapters, six of which are focused upon herein. In chapter 1 they address the economic, social and political factors that have led to an evolution in mineral policy approaches while in chapter two they identify the elements of mineral policy that a country may address. As the mineral policy is implemented through specific instruments, the authors look at mining legislation as a vehicle of implementing mineral policy in chapter 3. In chapter 4 they discuss mining agreements while exploring the advantages and limitations they pose. In chapter 5 they explore dispute resolution mechanisms, focusing mainly on substantive issues. In chapter 6 the authors examine bilateral and multilateral agreements and explore how these arrangements can affect the mineral sector.

Chapter 7 is dedicated to the perennial and essential issue of mineral taxation from the perspective of governments and investors. The final chapter is devoted to environmental and sustainable development issues as mining operations may have huge impact on both the natural environment and the social-cultural well being of local populations.